The Book of Ten Sayings 7

The seventh entry in the Book of Ten Sayings might appear to be simple, but it actually counsels us to deep and ongoing thought, thorough and penetrating analysis. The saying is, 

"Look to the end." 

1. "Look to the end" is a reminder that whenever we have a decision to make, we must look to the overall goal or purpose. Asking, "Why are we doing this?" can save money, reputation, health, and even life. Asking, "Why should I want to do this?"--that is, asking the question before you engage in the action, can be even more valuable. 

2. "Look to the end" reminds us that our lives here on this planet have expiration dates, and considering the sum total of our input and output should help us organize all of the major (and many of the minor) tasks of life. 

 3. "Look to the end" encourages us to think about the effects the idea or plan or activity will have on other people. 

4. "Look to the end" stimulates us to ask, "And then what?" What will happen after the idea or activity is first acted on? And then what? Just what are the consequences? This saying is one of the most powerful because we notice that many people draw conclusions or make decisions based on the single effect deriving from the chosen solution. Cause, effect. But a little investigation often reveals that what we would really have is Cause, Effect, Effect, Effect, Effect, Effect. Many of these effects were not foreseen after only a shallow analysis was given to idea or decision. 

5. "Look to the end" is fundamentally a call to think about the long term consequences of decisions or proposed actions. Short term effects, even when not filtered by hopeful thinking, nearly always look great. But what about next year or next decade?

6. And of course, "Look to the end" is whispered in our minds as we are encouraged to contemplate not only our life plan but our death plan. It is said that your view of death determines how you live. If you think that your life or earthly existence ends with your death, you will likely live for yourself, but if you think that your life, your soul or spirit, continues after you check out of  Motel Earth, then you will likely learn to live and choose with the benefit of others in mind. 

 And here is the cosmic irony: Selfish people tend to be much less happy than unselfish people. Selfish people spend their time trying to maximize their own happiness. As a consequence, they see others as means to that end. They exploit and use others to get what they think will benefit them most. And when they recognize that they are not happy, they soon they embark on the spiral down to misery. "Being selfish hasn't made me happy, " they they think, "so what I need is to be a lot more selfish." As the teenagers say, "Yeah, like that's gonna work."

Being circumspect (circum=around, spect=looking) means that we should examine our position and know where we stand--that is, how and why we include the values in our personal set of beliefs. "What do I stand for, what do I truly value, and do my words and behavior reflect that?" 

Implied in this saying is the Christian virtue of Hope, one of the seven Christian virtues, and the classical virtue of Prudence (also known as Wisdom). 

The Book of Ten Sayings 6

The sixth entry in the Book of Ten Sayings reminds us what an amazing amount of control we have over our reactions to and feelings about the events of our lives. The Sixth Saying is 

"Not the event, but the attitude."

 Let's begin the discussion with a short story I wrote a while back. THE STRANGE ADVENTURE Once upon a time, so long ago that it seems like yesterday, circumstances so occurred that two youths found themselves lost together in the desert and forced to spend the night without the services of modern technology.

 “What a terrible thing,” said the first one. “We’re stuck out here all alone among who knows what frightening stuff.” 

 “This is great,” said the other. “What an adventure. I can’t wait to see what happens.” As the light began to fade, the youths happened upon a snake, sitting on a rock to get the last warmth it could find before the cold night set in. 

 “Oh, no!” said the first youth. “Out here it’s just one problem after another. Now we’ll have to worry about that snake crawling all over us as we sleep.” 

 “What a great opportunity,” said the second youth. “Now we can have some dinner.” Soon the snake was roasting on an impromptu fire, and in a little while, the two youths began to eat. 

 “This is horrible,” said the first youth, spitting out the meat and nearly vomiting. “I can’t imagine a worse thing.”

 “Actually, it tastes rather mild,” said the second youth, eating with relish. 

 When the next day came and the youths were rescued, they were asked about their adventure. “It was the most awful, horrible experience I’ve ever had,” said the first youth, trembling from the memory. “I’ll be mentally scarred by it for the rest of my life.” 

 “It was great!” said the second youth. “I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. What a fun time. I’m so glad I was there.” 

  The events we experience are less important than the meaning we give to them, for life is about meaning, not experience.

 Suppose you are at a friend's house and you bump your head on an open door of a kitchen cabinet. Are more likely to minimize the event and tell your friends that you are okay or are you more likely to launch into a long complaint, in a tone of voice that makes your physical suffering very clear, and emphasizing how much it hurts and hoping it won't need stitches or leave a permanent scar? If you were in the market, which of those two people would you rather marry? If you are one of those highly emotive people, what do you accomplish in each case? If you bring the focus onto yourself and claim to be important enough for everyone to focus on and sympathize with, what does that tell others about yourself?

 A great way to improve your attitude toward all the events in you life is to humble yourself and realize that there are more significant events than your broken fingernail or stained shirt occurring every day and night all over the world. Get serious and stop thinking, "What about me?" every time you talk or listen. Yes, your life, heart, and soul are important to God (which is why he has created a way through Jesus for those who love him to live with him in eternity), but to the world itself, you are just not that important. 

 What makes some people so cheerful all the time (or at least positive), while others are always glum and suspicious? For some, if not many, they have decided to serve God in everything. Their attitude changes from, "Get someone else to do that," or "I'm not going to help," "Don't expect me to clean that up," to "I'll be glad to do that," "It's only mud, and skin is washable," "Looks as if we will be on this job for a while." You can see the difference in their faces and behavior. The "will do" people are happy--yes, happy--washing dishes, cleaning the floor, changing the oil, chopping the firewood, or whatever. The "that's too much work" folks are grumpy and negative, suspicious that you are trying to get them to do extra work.

 Back in the old, old days, before beginning work or a new project, people would always say, "To the glory of God," dedicating their hard and honest work to the Lord. Did that make their projects or tasks easier? Their labors needed the same number of buckets of floor mop and the same number of two-by-fours for the barn, but the tasks were indeed easier because their attitude was entirely different. They cheerfully labored to please God rather than to just get through the hateful task. If you already know God, adjust your attitude to that of a joyful servant. If you don't known God, you have an important first task.

 Blaise Pascal says, "Let them recognize that there are only two kinds of person whom we can describe as reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they have found him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they have not found him."

The Book of Ten Sayings 5

The fifth of the ten deepest statements of wisdom, that, if followed as a set of life guiding principles, will bring both joy and courage, strength and justice, circumspection and maturity to whoever strives to live by them. As with many principles for finding wisdom, this fifth saying involves decision making, for life is all about making decisions, and the better the decisions the more successful and happier the life. The fifth saying is, 

"The more you get, the more you have; the more you give, the more you are."

 It seems to be a fundamental principle of human nature that we are born selfish, greedy, and avaricious. Even as toddlers (or maybe earlier?) we want to grasp everything dangled in front of our eyes. We can never get enough of the possessions of life. Often, we don't even bother to play with each new toy, because, after all, "He who dies with the most toys wins." The mantra says nothing about actually playing with the toys. The goal is acquisition. So, long before Johnny could buy a shiny new pick up truck and paste a bumper sticker on it saying, "He who dies with the most toys wins," Johnny had been dipped in the materialist cultural tea that was floating everywhere around him and he was easily converted into a committed consumer. 

 As we grow up, we fill increasingly large toy chests with increasingly costly toys, now often referred to as "tools" and every year our "need" grows for larger booty. The first apartment squeezed into by the couple with the kid and the dog, soon gives way to the two bedroom house, then the three, four, and five bedroom house, still with one kid and a dog because the couple are too tired from working long and hard enough to have another kid. Then one day they see this saying and think about it. Their first reaction is to mock the saying, claiming that it must have been written by an envious person of lower economic status than they. However, they both awaken the next morning with the thought that the saying is true: "Our houses are full, but our lives are empty." Everywhere they could find stuff, but nowhere could they find meaning. 

 This saying is also connected with the concept of generosity and with the fourth traditional Christian virtue of charity, which in the old days meant love.

The Book of Ten Sayings 4

The fourth timeless truth in the Book of Ten Sayings is one that our impatient and fearful age needs to meditate on. The fourth saying:

This too shall pass. 

 The traditional story is that an ancient Persian king once ordered his wise men to invent a saying that would be true and applicable to every time and in every season, a saying that would comfort him in times of sorrow and temper him in times of joy, a saying upon which he could meditate profitably regardless of his situation, or what he faced, or how he felt. The saying they brought him was, "This too shall pass."

Sometimes quoted as, "This, too, shall pass away," the meaning is the same: We live a life of fixed, limited duration. The only things of permanence are the lasting effects we have on those around us. We die and pass away, and move to another realm where our attention is exclusive, giving us no time to look back to earthly life to give warning or direction. But if instead we seized our hours and minutes while here and employed them to help others live better lives, enjoy their time here, find meaning in life, come to know God, and for the ultimate benefit, find the Savior to take them with the rest of us into the heavenly realms, then we will have led a life that sneers in the face of evil and transitoriness. It would be a life worth living, however long or short. 

 So, "This too shall pass" is both a warning and a promise. Understanding this truth allows us to see it as the match that can light the candle of hope, set ablaze the torch of endurance, and illuminate the beacon of patience. If only people would pay attention and remind themselves of this bit of wisdom and allow themselves to be cautioned by it and show a little patience, how many ships would have been spared from sinking among the rocks of haste, the insistent pinch-in-the-shoe of eagerness, the and out-of-fuel crash of going for broke (or rather, going for self-termination) by accident? 

 This is another one of those two-edged proverbs that can cut both ways, possessing meaning in multiple directions. As focused on and explicated in the notes above, the saying is indeed an encouragement to persevere in the face of challenge. But sometimes extended physical suffering or psychological trauma or chronic painful physical suffering or emotional rejection can force a person to call upon this wise summary of humanity and be reinvigorated.

 Finally, "This too shall pass" serves us just as well when, in the middle of joy and celebration and love and adventure, we remember that the experience will soon be over and we will return to our previous lives. No, it does no good to yell at he conductor, "Make it stop!" when we feel the ride slowing down when we want it to go on forever. Are you winning? Are you losing? Are you happy? Are you sad? This too shall pass. Implied in this saying is the Christian virtue of Hope, one of the Seven Classical Virtues.

The Book of Ten Sayings 3

What is the third most important saying of all time, one that will encourage wisdom and happiness, justice and equity? The saying is, 

 "It is not right to do evil in order to bring about good."

 

 This saying is, first, a warning against moral short cuts, against choosing expediency over morality; for such is the great temptation of man, whether the temptation presents itself as covetousness, lust, greed, a handy lie, the imitation of justice, or any other dash around the right way. Secondly, this saying entails another classical guide to wisdom: "Truth is always best." Whatever you suffer from telling the truth or doing the right thing, you will never have to add to your punishment the mental and physical tortures of guilt when your devious plan explodes in your face. The pain of knowing that you tried to fool, deceive, lie, cheat, steal, con another person only to see it shatter other people's lives as well as your own--that pain will not be there if you always told the truth. This Third Saying also embraces the Bible's commandment, "You shall not bear false witness." 

Some shrewd but sad person once noted that if you tell the truth, the supporting (true) explanations come automatically; whereas if you tell a lie, you must think of two other lies to support, excuse, and explain every other lie that brings credibility the other lies. The exponentiation cannot be long sustained: The main lie needs two lies to make it believable. Each of those two lies needs two lies to explain them. Each of those requires two lies to keep the falsehood afloat. 

 If civilization were honest and clear thinking, this saying could be summed up by, "Do only good." But since men are crafty and would soon claim that some expedient horror would actually be the "moral equivalent of a greater good," we must take care to avoid any ambiguity. 

 Implied by this saying is the classical virtue of Justice. If you sit back and do some deep contemplation of this Third Saying, you will soon discover that it is a clearer and more straightforward way of saying, "The means cannot be justified by the ends," or, as more commonly phrased, "The ends do not justify the means."

The Book of Ten Sayings: 2

The Second Saying in the Book of Ten Sayings 

 2. Know Yourself

 How much misery and discontent and needless expense are created by people who don't know who they are or what they believe. At the basic level of rational survival, everyone needs a moral structure to make decision making easier. Of course, knowing that many or most people have no such moral code, the predators and exploiters are at the elbows of the naive and foolish, who let a stranger or a Hollywood film suggest proper and improper behavior--based on their own desire to shape decisions of their victims. And, of course, the religious cults and the professional predators have a field day harvesting the thoughtless, whose only value is "fun" or "excitement." These folks are always falling back on, "Why not?" because they have not the depth to imagine a negative outcome. "Here, Binkie, have some pills and booze. You'll feel great." "Uh, Okay, I guess, why not?" 

 If you are a young person, say under 30, you probably think that reading is a waste of time, because you can "always catch the movie." Or maybe you do read--the financial paper, the gossip mags, restaurant menus, romance novels--but don't spend a lot of time on them. Read to settle your brains and to develop a foundation of values and ideas on which you can build a life of meaning. In addition to reading, you need to live a life and to analyze your adventures to see what they mean to you and what kind of person you are and what kind you're becoming. Do you like roller coasters or art galleries? Hot chocolate in a ski lodge or umbrella drinks at the beach? Can you stand yourself? People who can't stand their own company are quite unfortunate because they are with themselves 24/7. Seek to gain understanding--of yourself and others. 

Answer some of these questions after giving them some extended thought.

 A. If you could be independently wealthy and not need to work, what would you choose to fill you life? Is there a particular type of career that appeals to you, but now, realistically, it doesn't pay enough to pursue?

 B. If you were put in charge of a charity with $100 million dollars to give away to anyone you chose, how would you divide it out? 

C. What is your view of human nature? Are people basically good or bad? What makes good people good? What makes bad people bad? 

D. What single proverb sums up your life's philosophy? 

E. How does your belief about death affect your belief about life?

The Book of Ten Sayings 1

Introduction This "book" was intended to be an entire book when first conceived, consisting on an elaboration of the ten most important sayings of all time. But life circumstances have held it back into a very incomplete form. But perhaps there is a kernel of wisdom somewhere here that will resonate with you and help you to grow into a better person and friend. 

 The First Saying 

 1. Put God First .

Some have accused God of being self-centered and even egotistical for wanting to be worshipped and at the center of humans' attention. But the truth is, the fallen creature known as man has been so corrupted by Satan (who IS the egotist) that the only way to get man from being self-centered is to shift his focus onto something more powerfully attractive. Focus on God, knowing him, serving him, loving him, and you will find a better opportunity for happiness than through any other activity. Putting ourselves first results in unhappiness, to ourselves and others. 

Take a look at those who can theoretically buy anything, including happiness. Often they embark on a trajectory that traces the meteoric path across the sky, running on alcohol, sex, drugs, and wild behavior. But even ordinary teenagers can find misery--or death--by putting themselves ahead of everyone and everything else.

 I probably sound preachy, so I will just close with an anecdote. One year my friend Phil and I were driving on the way home from a computer conference in Las Vegas. Suddenly a small red sedan raced up behind us, swerved onto the median to avoid hitting us, and raced out of sight. Perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes later, we drove into a traffic jam. It soon cleared up. It was caused by the little red car, which was lying upside down in the ditch that separated the two sets of lanes. We read later that the car contained four teens. They died either by having their skulls crushed when the the top of the car collapsed on them, or else they drowned in the shallow--but deep enough--ditch water in the median. 

 The most serious and damaging of the "Seven Deadly Sins" is Pride because it not only does harm by its own misguided and misleading attitude, but it also stimulates some of the other of the sins, such as greed (or avarice) and anger (aka wrath). Finally, Pride affects and damages both the prideful person and everyone he comes into contact with. Some of the Seven Deadly Sins can be limited, generally speaking, to their owner. Sloth, for example, harms only the slothful one directly, although the damage done by shirking duty and by a attempting to skate by with shortcuts has negative effects on others, also.